Help: Condenser Mic without mixer ?

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:53 am

i have a 32-bit Creative sound card and i wanna purchase a new semi-proffisional mic for home recording using a pc BUT i dont have a mixer.
my question is, do i need a mixer to be able to use Condenser Mics ?
and what Mics do you reccomand in my case

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:52 am

You don't need a mixer. But you do need a preamp. Mixers include the preamps so you will need a stand alone preamp box.

A product like: http://www.zzounds.com/item--THKMIMAB0
Can amplify your microphone, give it phantom power since it is a condenser and output a line level signal that you feed into your soundcard.

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:38 am

bpatram wrote:

You don't need a mixer. But you do need a preamp. Mixers include the preamps so you will need a stand alone preamp box.

A product like: http://www.zzounds.com/item--THKMIMAB0
Can amplify your microphone, give it phantom power since it is a condenser and output a line level signal that you feed into your soundcard.

You don't need a preamp if you buy a USB mic.

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:59 am

thanks for the info bpatram but what if the soundcard contains phantom power would that be enaugh

and sheet, can you reccomand some good USB mics ?

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:09 am

one more thing, i just reviewed my sound card and it says that it has an integrated Audio Amplifier, does this mean that the sound card has the phantom power required to run condenser mics ?

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:07 am

h2Z__ wrote:

one more thing, i just reviewed my sound card and it says that it has an integrated Audio Amplifier, does this mean that the sound card has the phantom power required to run condenser mics ?

No, Creative soundcards don't have phantom power out for microphones.

If you were to get a decent microphone and pre-amp, you would soon find that your Creative soundcard was the weak link in the chain. You would do better to consider one of the many pre-amp/interfaces that are available, such as a Firepod.

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